RESEARCH

Wearable Tactile Display

Wearable Tactile Display

The skin is the body's largest organ, but for electronic communication only a tiny fraction of that sensing capacity is used (the "vibrate" function on your phone is an example). With garment-integrated tactile displays, we have the potential for much more complicated communication through the sense of touch. However, this area is uncharted: how might we send and receive messages or communicate information through the sense of touch? We are exploring many questions related to tactile display, including the use of tactile display to transmit specific kinds of semantic information (such as glucose levels for Type 1 Diabetics), spatial information (tactile communication of the spatial layout of a room for firefighters navigating through dark and smoke), and non-traditional tactile modalities such as electrotactile display.